This invention relates to a document holder. More particularly, it relates to a document holder for use with imprinters such as are used in recording transactions by imprinting an embossed message onto a document.
In our near cashless society, more and more business transactions are made utilizing credit cards which carry an embossed message indentifying the holder of the card. Three items are required for each transaction -- an embossed card, a record slip which records the transaction and receives an imprint of the message embossed on the card, and a printing machine for printing the embossed message on the record slip. The printing includes a printing station for receiving and holding the card and record slip during the printing operation. The card and slip are placed in a predetermined relative position, one overlapping the other, so that upon exertion of pressure from a printing platen on the embossed message, the message will be imprinted in an appropriate location on the slip. Certain types of cards and record slips must be held in different relative positions with respect to each other. Providing a special imprinting device to accommodate such cards and record slips is costly both in terms of machine cost and clerical inefficiency in operating two or more machines.
More recently, banks have issued check cashing cards which are quite similar in appearance to credit cards. The use of such check cashing cards enables a card holder to write a check directly on his checking account using a check form supplied by the commercial establishment where the check is being used to purchase merchandise. In those commercial establishments that have charge account systems of their own, it is common for them to have a credit card of different dimensions and charge slips of different layout than the check blanks issued by the banks. Further, the imprinters used by such commercial establishments are obviously intended specifically for their own charge cards and charge blanks. Therefore, to enable commercial establishments having their own charge card system to recognize check cashing cards issued by banks, it would ordinarily be necessary for the commercial establishment to purchase new imprinting devices to accommodate the bank card in view of its dimensional differences from their own charge cards. Since such commercial establishments are usually very large and usually utilize large numbers of imprinting devices, it has heretofore been uneconomical for them to recognize bank check cashing cards since it would require a substantial investment in hundreds or even thousands of new imprinting devices.